tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12531491.post827077237200796590..comments2023-10-05T06:44:34.479-04:00Comments on hypnoray: Dr. Thirteen: I read the modern mainstream superhero critical darlingjoncormierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865627865285684437noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12531491.post-10553381405633284522010-08-06T08:32:48.018-04:002010-08-06T08:32:48.018-04:00Hmmm, good point. I'm not really up on my &qu...Hmmm, good point. I'm not really up on my "what makes a skeptic." I guess they don't want to market Dr. Thirteen as the DC Universe's preeminent naysayer or curmudgeon.<br /><br />I guess he's sort of like the flat-earth people. "I've never seen the planet as a whole round ball so I'll go with it being flat." He's something of a pigheaded old man wagging his cane at the young punks on his lawn, and his own self-delusion is what makes him work. I like how he can use just plain old suspicion and logic to disprove most things around him, but when his furvor blinds him to things he's witnessing it gets problematic, I agree.joncormierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00865627865285684437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12531491.post-82286971392217432512010-08-05T19:50:14.536-04:002010-08-05T19:50:14.536-04:00Yeah, I agree with the above. My one complaint ab...Yeah, I agree with the above. My one complaint about the book is that Dr. Thirteen is an offensive and preposterous caricature of a skeptic -- denying empirical evidence and continuing to blindly assert your own prejudices against reality is basically <i>the exact polar opposite of being a skeptic</i> -- but this is precisely how badly the character was written back in the old days, so I have to assume Azzarello knows better and was being true to the original for the sake of humor. But it would have sat a lot better with me had Thirteen been contrasted with a proper skeptic.<br /><br />(Actually, the late Steve Gerber once raised this question about a skeptic in a superhero universe, and I pondered long and deeply as to how a character like that could function. He wouldn't, for instance, deny alien visitors; he'd say "This charlatan claims his so-called healing ray uses a Kryptonian rondor horn, but it's just an elephant tusk painted to glow in the dark!" But I digress.)Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01714171897239398438noreply@blogger.com